“The Society for Psychological Anthropology Lifetime Achievement Award honors career-long contributions to psychological anthropology that have substantially influenced the field and its development.” (SPA) Dr. Shore Specializes in Symbolic and psychological anthropology, Ritual, and Oceania, Polynesia and the United States. Congratulations!

At our Honors and Awards Luncheon on Friday, April 27, the Anthropology department recognized our six Anthropology undergraduate students who successfully defended honors theses this year. These students are scheduled to graduate with honors on May 14. Please join us in congratulating these students on their hard work and accomplishment!

What does the research-to-stage process look like? And why does it matter? Last week the students in Prof. Debra Vidali’s “Anthropology & Performance” class presented a dynamic showcase of ethnographic theater projects, based on original research. Students transformed over 100 hours of research interviews and extensive participant-observation research into verbatim documentary theater performances that examined issues of well-being, diversity, belonging, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and birth control. The vivid portrayals brought to light issues and voices that are less well understood and represented, and sparked a lively audience discussion about future applications and interventions.

Klamath Henry, a junior anthropology major (B.A.), published a website in the fall of 2017 on her ANT497R research, advised by Dr. Debra Vidali. This research looks at the resiliency of the Iroquois Three Sisters food system and its impact on the Tuscarora Indian community. The website showcased findings in her research, and includes self produced poetry, photography, resources, quotations and a short video.

“The resiliency of North American Indigenous food groups through forced assimilation and colonization is incredible. I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to take research credit to investigate my tribe’s traditional ways of producing food, and produce a website to showcase my findings for both my tribal community and the greater public. It is important that universities take the time to decolonize their ways of thinking about research, because in doing so, they allow for the erased voices of Indigenous peoples to be heard,” says Henry.

“What if we started reporting tragedies in the Mediterranean like we do any others – with names and not numbers? There were forty-seven humans lost in a single shipwreck. This isn’t the story of their shipwreck. It’s the story of them,” says Isabella Alexander (PhD 2016) .

Graduate student Andrea Rissing publishes article in Anthropology News describing the approach to her research on Iowa farms, which includes letting the farmers contribute questions they feel are worth asking.

“I always found that farmers had insightful opinions on what questions merited investigation. People know what is important in their own lives, and creating space for them to flip the interview made for more interesting, dynamic research.”

In Anthropology 385: The Migrant and Refugee Crisis Isabella Alexander combines classroom learning with creation of real-life solutions. Students interacted with people affected by the migrant crisis and created final projects that are aimed at having genuine impact, such as a mentoring program for young refugees.